SNF Agora Institute Presents: What the Midterms Mean

John Sarbanes is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 3rd congressional district from 2007 to 2025. The district includes Annapolis, the entirety of Howard County, and parts of Anne Arundel and Carroll counties. Joining the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University for 2025 as its first Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, Congressman Sarbanes brings a long record of public service that includes seven years as chair of the Democracy Reform Task Force in the House of Representatives.

Sarbanes brings a wealth of experience from his tenure in Congress, where he was a champion for democratic reforms to strengthen the voices of Americans across the political spectrum.  As chief architect of H.R. 1 – the For the People Act, and later the Freedom to Vote Act – Sarbanes sought to enhance access to the ballot box, eliminate partisan gerrymandering and reduce the influence of big money on our politics.  He has focused especially on democratizing the funding of campaigns to empower grassroots donors and make running for elected office more feasible for more candidates, regardless of means. His leadership on democracy issues is rooted in the conviction that restoring faith in political institutions is the most effective way to reduce partisan gridlock and advance common sense public policy.  Throughout his career, Sarbanes has brought particular attention to encouraging civic participation among young people. He authored legislation establishing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that to date has brought student debt relief to over a million individuals pursuing careers as teachers, nurses, social workers, first responders, service members, and other careers in the public and nonprofit sectors.

Benjamin L. Cardin
Former U.S. Senator, State of Maryland
Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 118th Congress

The Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin is a distinguished senior fellow with a joint appointment at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Foreign Policy Institute of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

A career public servant, he most recently represented Maryland in the United States Senate from 2007 to 2025. Prior to his Senate service, Cardin served twenty years in the U.S. House of Representatives and two decades in the Maryland House of Delegates, including eight years as Speaker. Across these roles, he worked on issues including democratic accountability, international cooperation, health care, environmental protection, and infrastructure and transportation.

Senator Cardin served as Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he focused on integrating democracy, anti-corruption, good governance, and respect for civil and human rights into American national security.

Lilliana Mason is an SNF Agora Institute Associate Professor of Political Science.

She is co-author, with Nathan P. Kalmoe, of Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2022), and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity (University of Chicago Press, 2018).

She received her PhD in political psychology from Stony Brook University and her BA in politics from Princeton University. Her research on partisan identity, partisan bias, social sorting, and American social polarization has been published in journals such as American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Political Behavior, and featured in media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and National Public Radio.

Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the Facebook Research Integrity Group, and the Democracy Fund.

Tom Hall is the senior news analyst at WYPR Radio, the NPR affiliate in Baltimore. Before assuming that role, he served for 10 years as the host of Midday, the daily news and public policy program on WYPR that featured interviews with elected officials and community leaders, as well as conversations with thought-provoking authors, artists, researchers, journalists, and scholars from around the world. In 2020, Tom and the Midday team won an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award, one of journalism’s most prestigious awards, for their 2019 broadcast memorializing Congressman Elijah E. Cummings. Tom has also won numerous awards for his previous work as the music director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and is widely published.